Question for moderators and others to ruminate...

Well, there are the sheep and goats...

I think the other mods have tackled this subject enough for me not to worry about tossing in my $0.02.

Rick, I will work on the top navigation menu to include a better forum tree so that everything doesn't automatically get dumped in the Main forum.

 

I can assure everyone that there is no selectiveness in moving posts when I do move a post.

When I login I click on the 'unread posts' link. I then read the thread topics and also look at the forum they are in. If I feel that post belongs in a better suited thread than where it is (usually the main forum) I'll open it up in a new tab and then continue to move it to the thread I feel it best belongs in. At no time do I look to see who made the post and use that as a determining factor whether or not I will go through with the move. Like I said earlier, if I notice a thread that has been going on for a few days and have quite a few posts in it already I'll just leave it be rather than look to shuffle it around.

Not like it matters, but I just wanted to make clear how I moderate and move threads. Like I said, moderating is all about making decisions by oneself and like anyone who does things for a group of people, you cannot make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time. I do try though and personally I feel Rick and I have been doing a great job in the GenIII forums. (I shouldn't leave the other mods out of course and honestly they do a superb job as well). I had my own site for some years and let me tell you, considering the traffic we get here the moderating staff here does a superb job.

 

There are three types of Moderators:
PriusChat Admin. That's Danny.
PriusChat Moderators: Tideland Prius, Efusco, TonyPSchaefer
Forum Moderators: Paradox, HTMLSpinner

No one - and I mean no one - has the ability to edit, move or otherwise alter thread propoerties once it has been posted. Even when the OP misspells a word in the thread title, they have to ask us to fix it. When a new item needs to be added to a poll, the OP sends us a note. To reiterate, when a thread is moved, it is done by one of us.

On other matters, when a new member or non-member is looking for information about technical issues with their Prius, they will most likely browse through the technical subforum. If they want to improve their mileage, they will look in the mileage subforum. That's why we put them there. I support the idea of making a "Prius Misc" subforum though I think a mere name change will not stop the fact that people knowingly and willingly post their threads in the incorrect forums.

 

Indy,

Paradox and myself are only moderators for the Gen III Forums. Efusco, TonyPSchaefer, and Tideland Prius are global moderators. Danny is the site owner/admin. Any one of us can affect changes in the Gen III forums, though only the latter 4 can affect site-wide changes. In the end, what Danny says, goes

Hope this clarifies.

edit:

Woops, Tony posted the same thing, but w/ more accuracy.

As far as my style, I take the same approach as others. If a title appears misplaced, I pop the thread open in a new tab. If the thread continues to read as misplaced, it's moved and I leave a 1 month redirect link (so that there's a path from the old to the new). If the thread is pretty old and has a TON of replies, my fuzz factor starts to kick in and it may stay or it may go, depending on how blatently "off topic" it is for the forum it was started in (as a whole, not just the original post).

At no point do I look at the original poster. I've even taken the liberty of moving posts started by one of our super mods (though I think he was testing me ).

 

And I'm asking you not to be rude. While you may have not said the word "conspiracy you've certainly implied impropriety":

Those are all your comments. If I've somehow misinterpretted them, my apologies. But it seems pretty clear what you were implying.

Let's see, I have over 17000 posts over the past 6 years...I've probably mistakenly posted in the wrong forum 5 times...usually b/c I mistakenly hit the wrong thread button, not b/c I didn't try to put it in the right place. But if I did, I would ask for and appreciate if it was moved. And you did post your topic in the wrong thread, and I moved it for you....you're welcome.

 

I know it has happened so this explains why if anyone may see either myself or Rick on and a spammer is posting left and right it doesn't disappear right away. It also explains why I myself will sometimes post "Reported" as the second post in a spam thread. If it is not in the GIII forums, I can do nothing but just report it and allow Evan, Tony or Tideland (or Danny) to move it.

Hope this may help explain the situation in case anyone ever wondered why we just let something sit there...

 

One more point - most of us have day (or night) jobs as well as real life issues that keep us from being consistent. For me, when I do get the time, I like to enjoy the forums in addition to moderating. Thus, some of these changes may appear sporadic or random when it really comes down to "when we have the time". It's a thankless job, but we're glad to do it.

Wow - the change looks great! The new/off-topic post count in the Main forum has dropped already!

 

And I think I was quite successful in demonstrating where you were rude. Look at the 4 statements quoted again. IMO suggesting that there is inappropriate bias and prejudice on the part of the moderation staff is exceptionally rude. Perhaps where you come from that's not. And, where I come from, asking someone to stop such hostile and rude behavior is not, in itself, rude. Am I being direct and abrupt with you, darn right. You've insinuated that we are doing something inappropriate in our moderation and I take huge umbrage with that suggestion.
There's nothing scary about that, I simply won't put up with someone inappropriately, and apologetically, suggesting impropriety on the part of the moderation staff here. It pisses me off and I'm gonna let you know about it and tell you to back off.

Thank you for that assurance, but I would certainly like a clarification of the previous quotes then, b/c the way I read them they certainly came across as insulting and suggesting impropriety...perhaps you could requote and explain exactly what you meant when you said things like:
"Some have even demonstrated that threads hurting the Prius reputation were possibly being moved to other threads on purpose, which I hope it is not true, but it certainly raises skepticism."
Just wondering what that actually means b/c clearly, from your assurance above, you didn't mean to suggest wrongdoing on the part of the moderation staff. Feel free to elaborate.

I disagree, I think you need to say a lot more. I have no idea what you're trying to get at here. I probably have a very equal distribution of my posts throughout the majority of the Prius II related forums, news forums, and Fred's.

 

I"m impressed.

Every Moderator has weighed in and answered your questions. But you still come attacking at Evan. I know Evan and he's a big boy able to take care of himself. He almost never lashes out at someone for attacking him in open forums. All the same, if you keep it up, someone else might same him the trouble.